Council cuts hundreds of care home places to promote independent living

Glasgow Council is to cut 215 care home places this year as part of a drive to promote independent living for the elderly and other vulnerable people.

Defending the plans against opposition, the council said they were a result of improved re-enablement care, the Evening Times reported.

SNP Cllr Mhairi Hunter, Chair of the Health and Social Care Partnership, said: “Once people come out of the hospital they are put into immediate care, are re-abled then go back into their homes. That’s why there is a reduction.

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“It’s because it enables older people to live at home for longer.”

Green Cllr Martin Bartos said: “If we look at the possibility that there will always be people who require care home support, some of this begins to smack of NHS planning of a couple of decades ago where there was a big reduction in beds.

“The technology arrived but the demand also increased and there wasn’t the capacity.

“If we allow a process which blindly accepts a reduction are we likely to be setting ourselves up for exactly the same problem?”

Labour Cllr Jim Kavanagh said there came a time when older people could no longer live independently and had to move into a care home.